2022
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE
Coping Times
Ria Keburia Art Foundation Ipureland Artists in Exile Program
(Republic of Georgia, Kachreti)

Curator Yulia Yousma

Multiple performances, photo, video documentation


Duration of performances: approximately 20 minutes each


Used materials: body, grass, artificial grass, wood, steel wire

BLAAAAAA Series.






The act takes place at the helicopter pad in the middle of the Resort. The costume for this performance is created of household materials, tools, protective clothing and workwear, objects related to housework, routine, martial arts and cheap labour.

As it often is in my performances – the persona here implicates a multitude of images, like a collage ensembled of different picture parts. It may appear as strange or creepy, comical and disturbing, or all at the same time. During performance this odd figure moves in circles repeatedly, dragging on with difficulty following the circled line on the asphalt ground.
In the early stages of the project performances ideas were developed based on the unconscious associations with different coping behaviours. Series of discussions were held later on, with curators and a clinical psychologist and psychiatrist specializing in behavioural studies. After finalizing the ideas and creating costumes for the performances, the final stage of the project was a series of live performances. The audience for these acts was never purposely invited. Only random hotel guests and golf players could become spectators by chance or in case when one of the performances took place on the roadside out of the resort, people from the closest village and the drivers passing by.
Video and photo documentation of these performances became the basis for several new projects later on. Video works, installations and objects were shown at the group and solo exhibitions in Georgia, Switzerland and New York.

The Coping Times Series is a continuation of my performative practice as a non verbal research on human behaviour.

MORE ABOUT THE SERIES